@ghuns: that pic with Blanton's ^ took me back a few years. Like to 1983 or so. I was living and working in Taiwan. Group I hung out with decided that after we all got back from our annual 'home leave' trips to US or wherever, we'd have a blind bourbon tasting meal...

Actually evolved to where it was bourbon and stogies with an very extensive multi-course steak feast at our local 'American Club' (sort of an urbanized pseudo country club; all paid for by the companies we worked for. A hell of a perk ! )

So, with each course we got a new bourbon to blind taste test, mated with a new cigar to enjoy with that course. It was a VERY long meal as you can imagine. Didn't take long til no one could identify any bourbon -- and didn't really care -- but we all agreed to do the whole thing again at minimum once a year! And did!

@ghuns: that pic with Blanton's ^ took me back a few years. Like to 1983 or so...

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Back when it cheap and easy to find.

I have been trying to get a bottle for months. I'm on a waitlist at a half dozen local liquor stores. I was told by all of them to expect a loooooong wait and be prepared to pay WELL above the retail price. Living in Indiana, right next door to Kentucky, you'd think we'd get it without much trouble, but so far nothing. My wife is actually from Kentucky and has family there that have been enlisted in my search. They can't find any either.

My son lives in St Louis. We were recently there for a visit and called around to some local stores. One said, we just got a case of Blanton's in this morning. We loaded up and got there in 10 minutes. The guy we talked to went to get it and couldn't find it. He called the owner who said, what case of Blanton's? We didn't get a case of Blanton's. The guy said, I'm looking at the inventory on the computer, it says we have it. The owner yelled at him over the phone, THERE'S NO CASE OF BLANTON'S. DROP IT!!! The guy admitted to us, it's likely the owner snagged it right off the truck and will sell it on the interwebz at a greatly inflated price.

A couple weeks ago my daughter came home from 29 Palms, California. Her husband is a Marine stationed there. If you've never been there, it's an interesting place. It may not be the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from there. She opens up suitcase and pulls out that bottle of Blanton's. She had found it at a tiny liquor in 29 Palms. She said they had several bottles of it. All marked at the retail price of $59.99. I immediately thanked her. Then I yelled at her, WHY DIDN'T YOU BUY IT ALL?

So now that I finally have it, I must admit, it was kind of a letdown.

For all the hype, it's just good. Not amazing. Not life changing. If I'd have scored a bottle locally and paid double retail, I'd have been seriously pi$$ed. There are numerous, sub $50 bourbons, that are easily obtained that I enjoy just as much.

...So, with each course we got a new bourbon to blind taste test, mated with a new cigar to enjoy with that course. It was a VERY long meal as you can imagine. Didn't take long til no one could identify any bourbon -- and didn't really care...

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That sounds like about the most fun that's allowed by law.

Earlier this year my son in law got back from a deployment to Syria. To celebrate his safe return, and his birthday, we took him on a tour of several local local craft distilleries in our area. We ended up at a bar that has 300 different kinds of whisky. It's a bit overwhelming to stare at the menu and try to decide what to get. A friend's daughter is a bartender there and she helped us make our selections.

By the time we were ready to leave, I ordered an $80 glass of Pappy Van Winkle.